DIRECT TAXATION.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 91, 28 September 1868, Page 233

DIRECT TAXATION.

(From, the Marlborough-Express.)

bias been accepted as an axiom that “ The subjects of every State ought to contribute to the support of the Government, as nearly as possible in proportion to their respective abilities; that is to say, in proportion to the Re' venue they respectively enjoy under the . protection of the State. In the observation or neglect of this maxim consists what is called the equality or • the ; inequality of Taxation” As all Governments are established for the purpose of securing justice to the governed, it follows as a necessary infer- •' -encethat; ; on<^of : .is, strict attention to the justice or equality of the laws by which the "revenues of the State are provided. A sapient, writer' in the New Zealand Herald asserted that “Customs Duties are the fairest taxes , the State can levy,” and gave as a reason for such opinion, because we pay them imperceptibly/ we don’t see the tax-gatherer at the. door.” 0, most potent reasoning, most grave and overpowering logic!—in the words of Shakspeare—“not/knowing we are robbed, we are not robbed af all.” * In 1842, Sir Robert Peel told the House of Commons that they had reached the limits of Taxation on articles of consumption; and if he had room to make that assertion, and to ad vise a reduction of tariff, surely we have reason to look our position in the face, and seek some remedy for the 1 high "prices of the necessaries of life, the depression of trade, and- falling wages ; and especially the inequality of the burdens of the State. In our former article we pointed out some of ths inequalities of the tax on the necessaries of life.; It is but begging. the •question to say that certain articles are not necessary to man’s existence. The habits of civilisation have-created wants which were unknown to our Ancestors, ; and many of the articles, now daily used by the poorest as common necessaries, would have taken -their places among the luxuries of the rich, even a huudred years ago; we cannot expect the laboring classes, more •than any other class/: toiforego the enjoyment of certain articles of consumptibh merely because the oracle of the .Herald/or the will’ of ignorant legislators, proclaim them luxuries, with the covert insinuation that the poor have no right to possess; or ehjoy themi ■; ; Kthepnnciples ehuncia,ted by Adam Smith are fotuided on truth~namely, that “ the tax/ which each individual -is • bound - to pay, ought to be- certain 'and ;h*ot‘arbitrary. The time of 'pay-. of paymen t, -apd the | ; ; be pa.id, ought all to be the contributor, and fe:^|^-^^MP^4fela^^hju(Rciqus^tax,’’-J eays" the “‘same - authority/ “ offers a

giieat ; terapMHSGn to smuggling.” Con* sequently,,. the certainty *pf individual is. destroyed, and ; “by the forfeitures - and other .penalties •whieh. fortunateindividuals in; cur who attempt unsuccessfully to evade the tax, it may frequently ruin them, and thereby put an end to the benefit which might have been (derived by the,.,employment of .’••'their capital.”

So far from agreeiug with the Herald, that the unconscious, process of tax-paying is a good, we denounce .it as a positive evil. It induces a carelessness on the. part of the.payers, and a certain laxity in using the funds so raised on the part of . the payees. When we feel the money going out of our pockets, we are more, likely to look sharply after ah equivalent return, arid to watch with -a jealous eye the expenditure of that revenue, to which we are all compelled to subscribe.